The Chattahoochee River National Recreation Area (CRNRA) will continue to keep a section of the Chattahoochee River closed because water quality has not fallen within levels recommended by the EPA following a sewage spill.
CRNRA’s Beth Wheeler announced in a release on Friday, July 14, that the closure will remain from Chattahoochee Nature Center (river mile 315.5) to Powers Island (river mile 307.5).
“The Park continues to work with Chattahoochee Riverkeeper to monitor water quality and has requested updated information from Fulton County,” she said.
The Georgia Environmental Protection Division (EPD) said on July 13 that it will decide what enforcement action to take after partially treated wastewater flowed into the Chattahoochee River earlier this month.
Fifteen miles of the river were closed to recreational use from the Chattahoochee Nature Center south to the downstream limits of the Chattahoochee River National Recreation Area. Since then, the section of the river from Powers Island south has been reopened.
The Chattahoochee Riverkeeper identified high levels of E. coli bacteria in the river and traced the source on June 29 back to Fulton County’s Big Creek Water Reclamation Facility, located at 1030 Marietta Highway in Roswell.
In the compliance and enforcement process, EPD collects data to evaluate any causes of the noncompliance with the facility’s permit from the state agency and what corrective actions were taken to address them, Sara Lips, director of Communications and Community Engagement for the Georgia Department of Natural Resources EPD, said.
“Once all information has been collected, EPD will initiate appropriate enforcement action. The agency will take enforcement action to address this issue, but as we are still collecting data, we have not yet determined the specific type,” she said.
The permit requires E. coli not to exceed 126 counts per 100 mL
For the months of May through October, when water contact recreation activities are expected to occur, culturable E. coli cannot exceed a geometric mean of 126 counts per 100 milliliters. The Riverkeeper recorded levels almost 300 times the permit’s limits.
The current permit for the Big Creek Water Reclamation Facility can be found on the Georgia EPD website. Click on the “Issuance” tab on the page for the permit.
